Alfiefinn wrote:I so hope she pulls through. It really makes me think dark thoughts about the universe when totally decent people get clobbered again and again by life. Here's hoping that she's well soon.

I couldn't agree more Alfiefinn. She has been through so much and is really doing some wonderful work...her daughter Sarah would be so proud of her mummy.I hope she pulls through.

'I lay there and wondered if soon I'd be reunited with Sarah' Abuse campaigner Sara Payne tells of her defiant battle for life after two brain ops

SURROUNDED by get well cards and family photos this is the courageous face of paralysed child abuse crusader Sara Payne as she begins her long road to recovery.

She needed TWO major brain ops in 36 hours after a massive stroke brought on by a brain aneurysm. Relatives gathered at her bedside as she was given just a 50/50 chance of survival.

Now six weeks on, Sara, 40, reveals her deep scars - both physical and emotional - and says: "For a moment as I lay there I wondered if this was the point in my life when Sarah and I would be reunited."

In an emotional interview she tells how she was torn between fighting to stay in this world or slipping away to rejoin her beloved daughter in the next. Still pale and drained, she recalls: "It's like I had a choice. If I'd seriously wanted to join her then I'd have just given up. But, for whatever reason, I didn't.

"I chose to live. And when you've lost a child that's a hard thing to come to terms with. Because there are times when being with Sarah is all I want - more than breath itself. But right now I have so much to live for.

"So I have to settle for knowing that one day I will meet Sarah again. And when it's my time to go, I'll go.

"But this wasn't that time. I know how close I came to dying and how seriously ill I was. But I try not dwell on that, because I have four amazing children all waiting for me to come home."

Sitting up in her hospital bed, buoyed by the goodwill messages around her, Sara fiddles constantly with her newly cropped hairstyle. "I always said I was going to cut it short when I turned 40, and now seemed as good a time as any," she declares.

"But after so many years of long hair, this is going to take some getting used to. It's a new look for a new chapter in my life - and I love it."

The stroke has left her without movement down her left side. "I know I've got a mountain to climb," says plucky Sara, her speech slightly slurred.

Then, recalling how she first had brain surgery to fix the anuerysm - a swollen blood vessel - back in 2008, she added: "And it's the second mountain in 18 months. Except this time round it feels more like Everest. Plus, I have to deal with the paralysis, which is hard on everyone. But I've done it once and I'm determined I can do it again."

Doctors have told Sara she will need many months of intensive physiotherapy to try and regain the use of her arm and leg. Painfully thin after losing two stones, she knows recovery will be a lengthy process.

Sarah's Law campaigner Sara Payne's moving interview after brain op"Getting home is my priority but I've got to take it slowly and be patient," she says. "There is some feeling down my left side which is good. But the doctors have faith and know I'm a fighter."

Sara fell ill in the week before Christmas at her home in Hersham, Surrey. She recalls: "We'd all just finished decorating our enormous Christmas tree in the lounge. I went upstairs as I had a bad headache.

"My partner immediately recognised the signs of a stroke from the 'Act Fast' TV ads and sent for an ambulance because my arm and face had drooped.

"Doctors said his quick-thinking probably saved my life. When the local Chertsey hospital transferred me to the neurological unit at St George's in Tooting I realised it was serious - because that's where I had the original surgery.

"At that point I became very, very scared. Before the operation I said to my partner, 'I can't go through all this again'. I know that worried the family because they thought I was giving up, which isn't like me at all."

It was one more drama to pile the pressure on this remarkable woman who won the nation's heart with her astonishing show of dignity and courage following the abduction and murder of her eight-year-old daughter Sarah by convicted paedophile Roy Whiting in July 2000.

Appointed the Government's independent Victims Champion last year, Sara has campaigned tirelessly for Sarah's Law - a range of measures to make Britain safer for children. And she remains as upbeat as ever.

Of her personal tragedies, she says: "Yes life has been tough, but I don't think its been tougher than anyone else's life. I guess our family has just been a bit unlucky recently.

"Sometimes in life, you don't have a choice, so you just get on with it. I'll be fine, I'll get there eventually.

11:29am UK, Sunday January 31, 2010Rob Cole, Sky News OnlineSara Payne has been left paralysed down the left side of her body after suffering a stroke brought on by a brain aneurysm.

To view this content you need Flash and Javascript enabled in your browser.Please download Flash from the Adobe download website.The mother of murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne was told she had just a 50-50 chance of survival.She was taken to St George's Hospital in Tooting, south London, with the life threatening condition shortly before Christmas.Speaking for the first time about her brush with death, the child protection campaigner said she was a "fighter" but had a "long road" to recover.She told the News of the World: "I've got to take it slowly and be patient."The doctors have faith in me and know I'm a fighter."But I'm under no illusion - I've months of tough physio to get through and there's a long road ahead.The doctors have faith in me and know I'm a fighter.Child protection campaigner Sara Payne"Rehab is the key to my getting better, to my getting home and getting home is my top priority."Mrs Payne, 40, from Surrey, survived two major brain operations in 36 hours.She first had surgery to treat the ruptured aneurysm in 2008.Since the death of her eight-year-old daughter Sarah at the hands of paedophile Roy Whiting in 2000, she has become a prominent campaigner for victims' rights.She took up the Government-appointed post of Victims' Champion at the end of January last year.Mrs Payne launched a high-profile campaign for "Sarah's Law" after her daughter's murder, giving parents the right to know if paedophiles live near them.A limited form of the law, based on America's Megan's Law, was announced in February 2008.She was given an MBE in the 2008 New Year Honours List for her tireless work to keep children safe from paedophiles.

It sounds, from here, that she didn't recover fully from her pre-christmas episode. It's not clear if the stroke resulted from ongoing problems with the aneurysm clip, or if a separate aneurysm has ruptured:

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view/119859/Sara-s-op-battle/

The mother of murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne has been in hospital in Tooting, south London since before Christmas.